Short Eared Owl

[NeilBrimacombe]

We had a large influx of migrating SEO's from Scandinavia last year and they stayed around until late March time, i was after something a little different and got lucky with this one looking down the lens.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6726569421_09b73042eb_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilb0147/6726569421/)
SEO CANVAS (http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilb0147/6726569421/) by Neil Brimacombe (http://www.flickr.com/people/neilb0147/), on Flickr

NR on the background and a slight crop to get the face centred.
Critique always appreciated,
Regards
Neil



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Camera
Canon EOS 7D (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/eos_7d/)


Exposure
0.001 sec (1/1250)


Aperture
f/6.3


Focal Length
700 mm


ISO Speed
800


Exposure Bias
+1/3 EV

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[gail bisson]

Welcome Neil,
This is a great image.
I am not usually a fan of backlighting but this works well.
I really like the two toned BG and the direct gaze of the owl.
Really nice wing position. The curve gives it an artistic feel,
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Neil:

A big welcome to BPN. Striking image to start out with. As Gail mentioned, the backlighting works well here, as dose the curved wing positioning. I could see some very subtle dodging of the face and underwing areas to bring them up just a sliver. Would still look natural but give a bit more bite to those all important eyes.

Because the gaze is directed towards us, you could safely crop in a bit from the right.

Looking forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[Marina Scarr]

Big warm welcome, Neil. I must second Gail and Randy's comments about this fine image. It's very artistic and unique and the back lighting is very effective. The curve formed by the wings is graceful. I pulled your image into PS and gave it a slight crop from the bottom and right, about the same amount on each. I then took Randy's advice and used Nik Viveza with one point on the face and added 20 pts of brightness and structure. In my opinion, it made a very fine image even finer!

[christopher galeski]

welcome Neil,very nice image like the flight pose,and the stare,well done.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

I'm not usually a fan of the backlit images, but in this case it really helps to make the owl pop from the background. Look forward to some more from you!

[Robert Holguin]

Stunning image. Love the back lighting here very effective here. The stare is just superb and great comp.
Well done.